Gone for Soldiers: Charles Russell Durfee (1918 - 1944) Marine

Charles Durfee is a fourth cousin, once removed, from my great great grandmother Martha Heath Hardy's line. The common ancestor we both share is John H. Hardy whose 1854 Alabama will I covered last week.

The Hardy clan moved from Alabama to Texas after the Civil War and most stayed there but somehow his mother Anna found her way to South Dakota where she married Aaron B. Durfee in 1916. Charles, their second child, was born two years later.

Charles was listed as a midshipman at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, appointed on June 11, 1938, from North Dakota.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

Original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library.]

He entered the Marine Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant in January of 1942 and was raised to the temporary rank of Captain a year later, serving in the Pacific Theater where he distinguished himself at the Battle of Tarawa, winning the Navy Cross.

[13 Mar 1944, Page 4 - Rapid City Journal at Newspapers.com]

Three months later he was killed during the invasion of Saipan and was awarded the Silver Star posthumously.

[12 Jul 1944, Page 4 - Rapid City Journal at Newspapers.com]

Here's a U.S. Army film about the assault on Saipan.

[Battle of Saipan, Marianas Islands 1944 (1949) US Army; Pacific Island Hopping, World War II]

Here are the details of his actions as given in the citations for the medals:

[Found on the website The Military Times Hall of Valor Project]

He's buried in the Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962. Interment Control Forms, A1 2110-B. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland.]

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